A New Hero
by kingcounty1
Summary: I was just some average guy attempting to make ends meet in New York, until... something happened to me. Now it's my duty to use my newfound abilities to protect this city and the people in it. But little do I know that I'm not the only one.
1. A New Hero

**Seeing as I have a hyperactive imagination, I wanted to write a story in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe after seeing the most recent 2014 movie. I apologize for any deviations from the canon, as this is me taking what little I know of the universe and turning it into my own little story. I do not own the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.**

Light danced on the walls of the dark room. Flashes of blue, green, and gray, all originating from the corner of the room. I stared without blinking at my computer screen as I continued working on my song.

A lot of the time, I ended up scrapping my projects midway through. Perhaps the melody wasn't right, or the rhythm track wasn't working out. Or maybe the track just didn't have the right feel about it. Sometimes, everything about the song can be fine, but the song itself just doesn't ring well. That happens all too often. But this song had the right feel to it, and I knew it was going to turn out very well.

I finished up the section and glanced at the clock. 2 o'clock. Christ it was late. I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my burning eyes tiredly, then saved the project before turning off my monitor and getting out of the chair.

I walked into my living room and turned on the light, then immediately regretted it as the light blinded momentarily. Sighing, I closed one eye and made my short way over to the bathroom, of which I turned the light on as well.

With my eyes finally adjusting, I slowly opened my eyes and looked at myself in the mirror. I was 21, 6 feet 5 inches tall, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes that were more on the dark green side than the brown. I probably should have been a basketball player, but I didn't care for the sport. Sure it was fun, but nothing I could really stick with for long.

I turned on the cold water in the sink, then leaned out of the bathroom and grabbed my water bottle, which was just an old soda bottle. I screwed off the cap and dumped out the old water, then put it under the sink.

It filled up quick. Turning off the water, I took a swig of the drink before screwing the cap on and heading to my bedroom, making sure to turn off the lights on the way. I didn't bother to turn on my bedroom light as I put my water on the bedside table before stripping down to my boxers and climbing into bed. I was out within seconds.

Midway way through the night, my eyes slowly opened. I was looking out the window next to my bed, which gave me a view of the alleyway behind the apartment building. It wasn't uncommon for me to wake up in the middle of the night, just gazing down into the alley. It was always quiet.

I took a long, deep breath, then closed my eyes and fell asleep once more.

My eyes opened as the sky brightened, as they always did. I always had a nasty habit of waking up when the sun rose, which meant I usually slept in during the winter and woke up early in the summer. It was reaching late November at the moment, which meant... yep, 7 o'clock. Lovely.

I groaned as I rolled out of bed and to the bathroom, where I turned on the shower and started washing the night away. Three minutes later, I was grabbing my laptop bag and walking out the door.

I never ate breakfast at my place. There was a nice little café on the corner that had free Internet and delicious muffins. As I stepped out on to the sidewalk, the early morning chill hit me. I grinned as I ignored it and walked across the street in my jeans and t-shirt, ignoring the glances the other people in their warm coats were giving me. I never did understand how, despite their presence in the cold for half the year, New Yorkers still acted like it was freezing outside when it was only 20 degrees. But then again, the whole week had been a toasty 50 degrees, so the temperature drop was a little odd.

A tiny bell dinged as I entered the café and took my usual seat in the corner booth. I enjoyed this seat because I could work on my laptop without people peeking over my shoulder, which was a pet peeve of mine. Setting my bag down on the cushion besides me, I pulled my laptop out and put on the table, just as one of the girls who worked there came over to my booth. I think her name's Claire, but I could be wrong since I'm awful with names.

"Will it be the usual Michael?" She asked, not even bothering to pull out her notepad. I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah… Claire… right?" I asked, praying I was right this time. She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Again, that's my sister. My name's Lucy. Honestly, how many times are you going to get our names mixed up?" She asked as she turned away and walked back to the counter.

God, I hated that. I always overthink it and end up getting wrong what I usually get right. "Whatever, I'll get it when I get it." I think to myself as I turn on my computer and begin browsing the websites where I post my music; Three hundred new views since last night. I was finally gaining traction in the music community. It had only taken a couple of years of music making and working random jobs.

"One blueberry muffin. Are you sure you don't want coffee?" Claire asked as she put it in front of me.

"I'm good. I've gone this long without it, I think I'll last a little longer." I say as I pick up the muffin and take a bite out of it.

"Okay then..." She sighed as she went back to the counter.

12 hours later, I found myself back in the same corner booth, sipping on a hot chocolate. It had been an irritating day. A music studio that I had filed an appointment at had failed to mention that they were behind on the rent, and by the time I had gotten there, which was halfway across New York City, they had completely emptied the place out. Leaving me to walk through the city until I had finally gotten back to my apartment to stash my laptop, before returning to the café.

Getting up from the booth, I dropped some money at the register and said goodnight to the sisters, before walking out the door with the warm cup of hot chocolate in my hand. At first, I considered returning to my apartment. I then decided against it and began walking down the sidewalk.

The sky was already dark. Sunset had been at around five in the afternoon, which meant that the cold night had acquired a kind of menacing feeling, despite the busy city. I was on the poorer side of town, so not many people were out and about. Maybe that's why I felt like it was ultimately creepier.

I walked for nearly half an hour before I found myself nearing my place again. I was only three blocks away when I turned down an alleyway. It was a shortcut to the alley behind my apartment. Midway down the alleyway, I paused as a glint of green a top a pile of what looked like metal in the corner of the alley. Curious, I walked over to the pile and kneeled, before reaching forwards and moving aside one of the metal fragments, which looked like bits of an old car, to reveal a small pool of luminescent green liquid. A better word for it would be mysterious space goo, but that doesn't matter. Curiously, and a little idiotically, I stretched my hand out and scooped the liquid up in my hand. Little drops dripped out through the cracks in my hand as I leaned forward and sniffed it. "Hmm, no smell." I thought to myself as I stood and turned away from the pile of scrap metal.

I must have done this far too quickly as my foot caught a slippery patch of pavement, causing my feet to disappear out from under me and my body to smack face first into the ground.

I woke up sometime later. It was still dark out, and the green liquid was gone. Feeling dazed, and a little bit confused, I stumbled to my feet and limped my way towards my apartment. I was freezing cold, and I really felt like taking a hot shower right about now. It took me 5 minutes to get back to my apartment, and as soon as I entered I stripped my clothes and turned on the water to boiling hot. I gasped lightly as I entered the searing heat, but quickly grew accustomed to it as I leaned against the showerhead and let the hot water run down my skin. I stood there for ten minutes before drying off and pulling on my boxers.

Opening the bathroom door, I paused for a moment as I rubbed my chest, which felt like a ball of ice was forming inside of it.

"I need some sleep…" I muttered to myself as I walked to my bedroom and climbed into bed, in which I fell into an uneasy sleep.

About halfway through the night, I awoke to the feeling of intense pain all across my body. It felt like I was both on fire and encased in freezing cold ice. The pain was so intense I couldn't breath, allowing me to only scream silently at the ceiling for God knows how long.

_A nightmare…_ Was the only I thought as I suddenly sat straight up in bed, for a moment completely clueless as to my location. It all came rushing back to me in the next few moments as I stared at the wall, recalling the intense feeling of pain I had felt. Suddenly broken out of my staring contest with the wall, I threw my legs over the side of the bed and jumped to my feet. "Damn, I feel great!" I thought to myself as I walked into the living room and flipped on the T.V before grabbing a cereal box out of the cupboard and pouring myself a bowl.

"…the terrorist attack upon the Sack's building yesterday is believed to have been the work of the Foot clan. A terrorist organization that..." I glanced at the T.V as I headed into my computer room with my cereal and turned on the monitor. Twenty minutes later, I leaned back in my chair and stared at the screen. "Holy hell….."

There it was; the fully completed song that I had been working on. Never had I worked so quickly and effectively on something. "Well damn…" I said as I clicked save, grabbed my bowl, and walked back into my kitchen. Placing my bowl in the sink, I turned back to the T.V which was on a commercial break. "That's the first time I've eaten breakfast here in almost two months..." I thought to myself as I looked blankly at the television.

With a shrug, I walked over to the bathroom and hopped into the shower once more. It took me a couple minutes to wash the smell of whatever had happened to me the previous night, before climbing out of the shower and wiping off the mirror. What I saw looking back at me made me stop in my tracks. What had once been a skinny tall guy, was now a completely ripped guy. "Wha… wha... Holy shit…" I whispered as I looked at myself in the mirror. I even had abs. I took a few minutes to stare at myself in the mirror, then finally tore myself away from reflection and got dressed.

Ten minutes later I was back in my usual spot in the café with a blueberry muffin and my laptop. I had just finished uploading the new song on to the Internet and now was at a search engine, my fingers poised to type.

_Foot Clan_, I type, pulling up a myriad of results, ranging from news articles to conspiracy theories. I click on the first result and start reading, my curiosity increasing with every sentence.

I finish the first article quickly and open the next result, only to find a lot of the same things said in the first article. "Terrorist group, evil organization, blah blah blah…" I mutter to myself. "Who _are _they?"

I start typing quickly, and before long I find myself looking at a list of locations, names, and dates. "Now this is more like it..." I say, and then stop. "I just hacked a terrorist organization... What the heck am I doing? How…?" I lean back and stare at the screen, my mind racing. Through the thoughts racing through my mind, a date and location jumps out at me from the screen. Something was happening tonight.

I pull open a search engine and search for the address; A warehouse down by the river. I pause as I suddenly feel a kind of tickling in my brain. Time seems to slow as my hand, seemingly acting of it's own accord, jerks to the side towards Claire and the tray of drinks toppling towards the ground. As if caught by an invisible hand, the tray rights itself and catches the drinks neatly, then settles gently onto the ground, not a drop spilled.

"Claire! Are you alright?" Lucy asks as she runs around the counter, then stops, confused. "Didn't you just…?"

Claire just stares down at the tray dumbly for a moment, and then chuckles nervously. "Huh… that was lucky…"

"Yeah… Did you see that Michael?" Lucy asked as she looked at me. I don't answer her at first, as I'm still staring at the tray.

"Michael?" I shake my head and look at her. "Yeah. Whoa, that was crazy lucky. Wish we could have caught that on camera."

She shrugged as she turned back to the counter. "Whatever. Back to work Claire!"

I was quick to finish up my muffin and head back to my apartment after that.


	2. Not Alone

**The second installment of the New Hero series. Once again I apologize for any deviations in canon, since I'm only going off what I saw in the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I do not own the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.**

The T.V. screen was black, I hadn't bothered turning it on. My reflection stared back at me, my heartbeat showing in the veins in my neck as my hands trembled nervously in front of me. Slowly, I lowered my gaze to the spoon in front of me and focused on it.

_Lift._ I thought simply, still not sure how this whole thing worked, or even if it did work. Nothing happened. The spoon continued to lay there stubborn, deaf to my thoughts.

"Okay…" I muttered to myself as I shifted my weight slightly on the couch and leaned forward.

_Lift the spoon. _I thought to myself as I gestured upwards with my hands. The effect was immediate as the spoon flew up to eye level.

"Holy...!" I gasped as I fell backwards against the couch, causing the spoon to drop. Before it could hit the table though, my hand shot out at lightning speed.

"I'm telekinetic..." I whispered as I gripped the spoon tightly in my hand, and stood up, looking around at my apartment. "Now… let's try something bigger…"

I looked down at the couch I had been sitting on and took a deep breath, then tried lifting it, just like the spoon. It didn't move for a moment, but after a few seconds it rose shakily until it stopped nearly three feet off the ground.

I began to grin widely as I set the piece of furniture back down gently. Eager to lift something heavier, I went out to the fire escape and looked down at the alleyway for a heavy object.

Spotting a trash filled dumpster, I raised my arms and focused on it, then thought, _"Lift the dumpster." _ As the couch had down moments before in the living room, the dumpster slowly lifted into the air. A small laugh escaped my lips as I released the dumpster, which fell to the ground with a loud _clang_.

For the next 2 hours, all I did was go through my apartment lifting random objects, and even myself a couple times, with complete ease. But after an hour or so, I began to get a small headache, which turned into a rather painful throbbing by the end of the second hour.

Dropping the table and the couch, which I had managed to lift at the same time, I sat down and rubbed my throbbing head.

"Like a muscle… gets tired after a while and you need to let it rest…" I muttered to myself as I flipped on the television and relaxed into the couch. "And what better way to do that than watch a screen…" I said sarcastically to no one as I picked up my water bottle, which had been on the table in front of me, and took a large swig.

As I only half watched the T.V., my mind wandered back to the location I had found on my laptop. I still had no idea as to where my newfound hacker skills had come from, but the information was interesting all the same. Perhaps I could go there tonight, check out what they were doing, and maybe even put a stop to it with my epic powers.

That last thought made me pause though. The power had a limit, and I didn't know how much weight I could lift. And what if they have guns? Fat lot of good telekinesis would do against a bullet. But while they would have the advantage of superior weapons, I would have the advantage of darkness. And if I were going to take full advantage of the dark, I would need the right clothing.

Jumping to my feet, while ignoring my headache, I grabbed my wallet then headed out the door. There was a used clothing store a couple blocks down the street, and that's where I headed.

The walk only took five minutes, and as soon as I walked into the store, I headed back to the coats section. White, no, blue, nope, leopard skin… damn it looked fancy, but no… I glanced down the aisle and a knee length black coat caught my eye. Quickly, I took it off the hangar and put it on, moving my arms about a little to check its' flexibility. Perfect. The coat felt like it was practically made for me. Satisfied with my pick, I took the coat off and draped it over my arm.

Next up was a hat. I moved over two aisles and found it within seconds. A black, logo-less, baseball cap. Perfect. As I turned towards the cash register to buy my items, a black bandana caught my eye.

"Nothing like going full black… typical…" I muttered to myself as I grabbed the bandana and went to the front, where I set my clothes on the counter. The cashier glanced over the items and gave me a look, then typed a couple things into the register.

"That'll be $25.85." He said as I pulled out my wallet and counted out twenty-six dollars. "Don't be going and robbing any banks now." He joked as he handed me back my fifteen cents in change.

I chuckled as I pocketed the change and picked up my newly acquired clothes. "I'll try not to."

The first thing I did was walk back to my apartment and drop off my new clothes. After that, I decided to head down to the river to see what this warehouse looked like. It was only a thirty-minute walk, and I soon found myself outside a chain-link fence, looking at a rather large, run-down warehouse. "What a typical, shady place for a terrorist organization to meet. What are they going to be doing... selling drugs?" I asked myself as I climbed over the fence and headed towards the warehouse.

I found a locked door relatively quickly, which I easily unlocked using my telekinetic powers. Immediately inside the first door was a small hallway with one door set at the end and two doorways on each side. Making my way towards the door at the end, I glanced into the two doors only to see two small offices with papers scattered all over the desks. Nothing interesting.

Now the final door, It had no window, so I turned the handle and slowly opened it, wincing as the door creaked from the rusty hinges. When it was open enough to slip through, I put my head around the corner of the door to see what was inside.

The door opened directly into a large room with windows providing natural light way up in the rafters. Across the room, there was an office overlooking the main floor, which looked like it could be accessed by a small flight of stairs that ran along the far wall.

But the most interesting thing that had caught my attention almost immediately was the twenty or so containers that covered the main floor.

"Or a plain old robbery…" I said as I pushed open the door and walked quickly over the one of the containers. "Let's see what's inside you guys…" I grunted as I pulled open the doors to reveal a wide variety of boxes, all differing in size. Curious, I kneeled down and opened one of the boxes.

Guns. And judging by the amount of boxes in the container, there were going to be a lot more in the other containers.

Quickly, I closed up the box and shut it inside the container. I was going to have my work cut out for me tonight.

I glanced out the window as the moon slowly peeked its' head over the city skyline. It was time. Grabbing a brown pair of gloves that I had found in the closet earlier, I stepped into the closet and looked at myself in the mirror.

Damn I looked good. In addition to the coat, bandana, and hat I was wearing, I had also put on my darkest, most flexible jeans and my pair of dark brown sneakers. All that was left showing now were my eyes as I pulled on my gloves.

"I am so ready for this." I said to my reflection, and instantly felt like a complete idiot. A minute later, I stepped out of my apartment building and began walking quickly down the street in the direction of the warehouse, my dark clothing hiding me very effectively.

I shook with excitement and nervousness as I looked through the same fence as before towards the warehouse. This time though, there were some big trucks waiting at the large warehouse door, which were now opened. The occasional flicker of flashlights was available from time to time through the large opening.

"Alright, it's go time." I whispered as I climbed over the fence and ran quietly towards the same entrance that I had used before, making sure to keep an eye out for guards as I did.

When I reached the door, I slowly turned the handle and opened the door silently. No guards in the hallway. Good. Quickly, I moved towards the door at the end of the hallway, but just before I reached it, the handle turned and the door swung open, revealing a man with an assault rifle and a flashlight, who looked very surprised to see me.

Before he could shout, I threw my hands in an upward motion, causing his gun to fly up and hit him in the face. He gasped and staggered back as he tried to regain control of his gun, but I wasn't going to give him that chance. Quickly, I stepped forward and punched him in the throat, then grabbed his gun and smashed him in the face with the butt of his gun. His eyes went blank as he went limp.

Before he hit the ground, I caught his body and pulled it into the hallway, then stepped through the door and closed it behind me, letting the darkness of the warehouse hide me as I looked around quickly.

There were a lot of men going through the containers from what I could see from the flashlights and the voices. So many that I was surprised no one had heard me take out what I could only assume was a guard.

Silently, I moved up to the side of a container and looked around the corner to the first row of containers. Five guys it looked like. And there was way too much light coming from their flashlights to sneak up on them. But I could handle that.

Using my telekinetic powers once more, I raised my hand and began to turn it quickly, as if I was unscrewing a light bulb. Within seconds, all of the flashlights went out, plunging them into their darkness.

Turning the corner quickly, I sprinted to the nearest guy and slugged him in the stomach, then gave him a swift punch to the face, knocking him to the ground. Next, I jumped forward and swept the second man's leg out from under him, then finished him with a hard kick to the stomach.

By now, one of the men had finally got his flashlight working and turned it on.

"HEY!" He shouted as he pointed it at me and opened fire with his gun. Time slowed down for me as I dove to the side while throwing my arm up, making the gun shoot upwards towards the ceiling. I hit the ground and rolled to my feet and dodged a punch from one of the men, delivering two fast jabs to the side before jumping and slamming my foot into his chest, making him fall to the ground, gasping for air.

I didn't stay to watch him fall. I was already running towards the man with the gun who was bring the gun down towards me. Time still moving in slow motion, I turned and grabbed the arm of the last man. Using my momentum as leverage, I twisted and threw the terrorist at the gunman.

Time seemed to speed up as they both slammed against a container headfirst.

I stopped for a moment as I looked down at my hands. "_Holy crap I'm a ninja…"_ I thought to myself.

But my thoughts were quickly interrupted as I heard the shouts of men rounding the corner. Realizing that my choices were limited at the moment, I did the one thing I could.

"_Lift!"_ I shouted mentally as I raised my hands. With a groan, the container in front of me slowly rose. I grunted in pain as the strain of lifting a huge container caused my head to throb, then thrust my hands forward, sending the container flying into a number of the approaching men, dispatching them immediately.

Attempting to ignore the headache, I crouch in preparation to fight more men. It took me a few moments, but I quickly realized that the shouts were all gone. There was hardly any noise in the warehouse at all. A familiar tingling sensation appeared in the back of my head as the sound of metal creaking came from my left. Slowly, I turned my head, my heart beating rapidly.

Four figures stood on the container, looking down at me, four very large figures, each holding a different weapon. Swords, nunchucks, those weird dagger things you see in ninja movies, and what looked like a staff.

I stopped breathing as I stared at them, and they watched me back. The silence was finally broken by the figure with the nunchucks, who leaned over to the one with the swords and said, "Bro… he just kicked some serious butt there…"

I immediately turned and sprinted for the door.


	3. April O'Neil

I rounded the corner at a dead sprint, using a quick moment to glance behind at the warehouse that was now quickly receding into the distance. I didn't know how close they were behind me, or if they were even chasing me, but I knew enough to be careful. And careful meant losing my invisible pursuers.

Spotting an alleyway on my right, I ran to it and slipped inside, glancing up at the rooftops for any large silhouettes. Nothing. Spotting a dumpster, I slid to a stop behind it and glanced around quickly, before pausing for a moment to catch my breath and think.

Because of my mask, they hadn't seen my face, so my identity was safe on that part. I just had to focus on getting back to my apartment without them finding me, piece of cake.

Hearing a noise, I quickly turned my head and looked at the entrance of the alleyway. Nothing. But that didn't mean anything, they could still be out there, hiding and watching me. I needed a place where I could move without them watching me from a distance. Something like…"Sewers…" I realized as I eyed a manhole.

Quickly, a plan formed in my mind as I prepared myself mentally. I would have to move fast. The less they could see, the better.

I glanced around one last time, then took off running towards the alley exit. Using a slight boost of telekinesis to prevent myself from slipping as I rounded the corner, I spotted a manhole in the pavement ahead.

"_Now!" _I said mentally as the manhole lifted just enough for me to drop to a slide, aided by the ice, and drop into the manhole. I hit the ground with a groan as the manhole clanged behind me, the sudden use of my power causing my head to throb in protest.

Gritting my teeth, I got to my feet and began to jog along the sewer, ignoring the smell as I relied on my sense of direction to lead me in the general direction of my apartment. As I jogged, I kept an ear out for the sounds of a manhole closing behind me, just incase I still had pursuers. I didn't think they could fit down the narrow hole, but who knew, anything was possible.

After what felt like an hour, I stopped at a ladder and climbed it, slowly pushing against the manhole in case I was in the middle of the road. I took a peek. Yep, middle of the road, but it didn't look like there was any traffic at this time.

Pushing the manhole aside, I climbed out into the dark street and put it back in place, then looked around at my surroundings. I wasn't far from my apartment at all. Lucky.

I pushed my bandana down to take in some fresh air, and then took off at a brisk walk towards home.

I groaned as sunlight pierced my eyes, forcing me awake. With a loud yawn, I sat and blinked a couple times as I looked around at my room. My 'hero' outfit was sitting on the floor next to my bed. The smell of sewer was still on it.

With a grunt, I got to my feet and walked to the bathroom where I flipped on the hot shower. Stepping into the shower, I thought back to the previous night. After I had gotten back, I had practically fallen into bed, stopping only to take my clothes off.

But the most vivid memory from the previous night was the final moments inside the warehouse. Those creatures. I don't know why, but as I thought back to their shapes, I felt like I recognized it some how, like they looked like some kind of animal or something. Unfortunately, It had been hard to get a good look at them in the dark light of the warehouse, so I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Last night still on my mind, I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off, then found some clothes and headed down for breakfast with my laptop in tow. Finding my normal spot, I sat down and opened my laptop.

"A bit late today Mike." Claire said as she stopped by my table.

I glanced at the time. Nine o'clock. "Yeah, I guess. Late night.""

"Happens to all of us. Blueberry muffin, as per usual?"

I nodded. "Yeah, and put some hot chocolate with that please."

She looked at me in surprise. "Changing it up a bit today, are we?"

I shrugged. "I already woke up late. Might as well."

"Okay." She turned away with a small smile as she walked back to the counter.

Returning back to my computer, I pulled up the old page listing the Foot Clan's list of targets. The next one wasn't until a couple days from now, so I had time to kill.

My food arrived as turned my mind to other things, such as my music. I opened my music page and scanned the right side of the page, two hundred new views. A decrease from yesterday, but I couldn't complain. It was a good amount.

A few minutes later, I closed my laptop and got up from the table. I had been hungrier than I thought, and had finished my food in minutes. So it was time to head back to my apartment and perhaps work on making a new song.

As I was walking towards the door, I heard a yelp from my right. Turning quickly, I reached my arm out and caught the woman around the back as her coffee hit the ground and splattered across the ground.

Ignoring the coffee, I looked down at the girl, who was breathing heavily from fright. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah…" She breathed as I helped her to her feet. "Thank you. I guess my shoes are just wet…"

"It was no problem…" I replied as Lucy rushed out from behind the counter with some paper towels. "Need any help?" I asked her I she started mopping up the spilled drink.

"No, no, I got this." She said quickly.

"Sorry about your coffee…" I said as turned back to the woman. "Here, let me but you another one." I offered as I grabbed for my wallet.

"No, I'm fine… You don't have to do that." She said as she reached into her purse and turned back to the counter with a sigh.

"Don't be ridiculous. Come on, will ten dollars be enough?" I asked Claire as I stepped up to the counter next to the girl. Claire paused as she looked between the two of us, then grinned. "Yeah, that'll be enough.

"That's settled then." I said as I gave her the ten. "Have a nice day." I said with a smile to the woman before turning and heading for the door.

"You too…" I heard her say as I stepped out the door.

I sighed as I looked at my laptop screen. It was eight o'clock in the morning, and I was back in the café once again. After I left the previous day, I had gone to the warehouse to see what had happened to the containers. There were police everywhere. I guess we had managed to stop the gang after all. After that I had gone back to my apartment to practice my telekinesis and work on another song for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately for me though, my views weren't racking quite enough views, which meant I was going to either have to score another deal with a radio station, or find a part time job.

My thoughts were interrupted as the woman from previous day approached my table. "Hey. It's me, from yesterday? Mind if I sit?"

"Oh yeah! Sure!" I say as I gesture at the seat across from me. "Feel free."

"Thanks." She said with a smile as she sat down, setting her coffee down on the table. "So… I don't think I got your name yesterday?" She asked as she looked at me questioningly.

"Oh, umm, my name's Michael. Michael Wellington." I say as I close my laptop and lean back in my seat. "What's yours?

"April. April O'Neil. Nice to meet you Michael." She said as she glanced down at her hands.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well April." I pause for a moment, as the name O'Neil rings a bell.

"And yes, if you're wondering, I'm the same O'Neil from channel six." She said as she looked back up at me, seeming a bit exasperated.

"Ahh. Sorry, you must get recognized a lot." I say, realizing how irritating it must be for her.

She waved her hand at me. "I'm used to it. Known as girl who jumps on trampolines and reports about it."

I chuckled. "Oh yeah, I remember seeing that one last week. It looked like you hated doing that story."

She gave me a look. "Was it that obvious?"

"Nah, but getting filmed jumping around in New York City sounds pretty bad." I point out.

She sighed. "Yeah… By the way, thank you for yesterday. That was very nice of you."

"Oh, it was nothing. I just happened to be the guy close enough to catch you." I replied with a grin.

We must have talked for an hour, but by the time she said goodbye to me on the sidewalk outside of the café, I had her phone number and was going to have dinner with her later that day.

It was a quiet little place; a little Chinese restaurant a few blocks away that served good noodles. As I entered, I glanced around to see if April had arrived, then spotted a sign that said, "Please seat yourself."

Taking another glance around to see if she was here, I took a seat at a table next to the window. A waiter was at my side almost immediately.

"Would you like a drink sir?" He asked, notepad at the ready.

"Just water for now, thanks." I said, looking up at him and giving him a quick smile.

"Yes sir." He replied, giving me a quick bow, before heading off to get my drink.

I looked out the window at the slowly darkening street as I kept an eye out for April. I was a little bit early, so I knew I probably couldn't expect her for another five minutes or so.

My water arrived and I thanked the waiter before taking a sip. I hadn't been on a date since high school, but I wasn't that nervous really. If April liked me, then it would be for who I was, not who I was trying to be. That's what I told myself anyways.

There she was. She waved me at from the sidewalk as she walked to the front door of the restaurant, then entered and came over to the table.

"Hey, I hope I didn't keep you waiting?" She asked as she sat down.

"Oh no, not at all. I only just got here." I said as I sat up in my street and took a sip of water.

Half an hour later, we stepped out of the restaurant and started walking down the sidewalk. "So how did you like the Chow Mein?" I asked, my breath forming a fog in front of my face as the night grew colder.

"It was good." She replied as she wrapped her arms around herself to shield herself from the chill of the night.

"Here." I said as I took off my jacket and draped it over my shoulders. "You look pretty cold."

"Thanks." She said as she gave me a grateful smile, which turned into a concerned look. "Aren't you?"

I shrug. "Nah. I'm used to it. I used to live in Alaska, so this weather is pretty nice."

"Alaska. Really?" She asked. "I'm guessing that you didn't actually live in igloos and such?"

"Oh yes, quite so, and we even rode polar bears to school." I look at her and chuckle. "Nah, I'm just messing with you. We lived in regular old wooden houses, and rode the school bus to school."

"I'm sorry, you must get dumb questions like that a lot." She said as she wrapped my jacket around herself tightly.

"Yeah, I do, but I've gotten used to it. But don't feel dumb about asking. It is pretty far to the North." I add as we continue to walk. After a few moments, I start to get the feeling like we're being followed, so I glance behind us quickly. Three guys were keeping pace with us, about thirty feet back.

"How far away is your apartment?" I ask as I bring my attention back to the front.

"Only a couple of blocks, why?" She asked as she looked at me.

"Probably nothing." I said as I glanced behind us again. She glanced behind as well, and then quickly looked ahead.

"Let's take a right here." She said as she picked up her pace a little.

"Good plan." I replied as I matched her speed while as we rounded the corner. I glanced behind us again as the three men rounded the corner.

"They're keeping pace with us. The sooner we get back to your apartment, the better." I say as we cross the street and take a left. A quick glance told me they were drawing closer, with only half the distance between us than before.

"How close is your apartment?" I asked quickly as I glanced behind us again.

"Two streets down. The big white one." She replied.

"Okay, run, now!" I said anxiously as the men began to run at us. We both started running, but they were close ,too close.

"Keep going. I'll hold them off!" I said apprehensively as I stopped and turned to face the guys. The closest threw a punch at me as soon as he got in range, but I sidestepped it and grabbed his arm, using my foot to trip his legs and throw him to the ground.

I heard scream from April and looked up to see a fourth guy step out of the alleyway and grab her by the waist. Unfortunately, this distracted me enough for the next guy behind me to slam his fist into the back of my head.

My vision flickered as I fell to the icy ground and stars filled my vision. In my daze, I didn't see the kick coming as it slammed into my side and knocked the breath out of me. I fell onto my side as I heard the men laughing at Aprils' attempts to get free.

I struggled to take a breath as my ribs burned in pain, when another scream filled the night. "April!" I gasped as managed to push myself up to one knee.

But it hadn't been a woman's scream that time. It had been a man's. And it quickly died away as I looked up to see April rushing to me.

"Oh my god… Michael, are you okay?" She asked as she helped me to my feet.

"Yeah. I'm fine… What happened…" I stopped as I saw exactly what had happened. One of the things from the previous night, more specifically the one with the nunchucks, stood in front of us.

Now that I could see it better, I knew what it looked like, a giant turtle, wearing an orange mask.

"Bro, those guys really messed you up." It, or rather he, said.

"Wha…" I gasped as I stared at the turtle. I could feel my heart racing as I looked at April, who did not look surprised at all to see the turtle, then back at the turtle.

"I know it's a lot to take right now Michael, but we should really get you looked at. Those guys hit you pretty hard." She said as she looked at the turtle. "Is Donatello nearby? It'll be easier to have him look at him than take him to the hospital."

"Yeah, he's in the area. I'll be back before you know it." The turtle said.

Pain lanced through me side as I looked down at the ground and gritted my teeth. "I think I might've broken a rib…"I gasped as we started walking the rest of the distance to her apartment.

"Donnie will fix it up." April replied as she helped me limp down the sidewalk.

"Who is that, another turtle thing?" I asked as I looked at her. She nodded. "And how did you meet them?" I asked as we reached her apartment.

"It's a long story…" She said as we started walking up the steps, each of which gave me a nice little throb of pain.

"It's seems like we've got some time." I reply. She looked at me for a moment, then began to tell me about Project Renaissance.

A few minutes later, I was laying on a sofa in her living room, staring at the wall as I processed all the information I had just received.

"You've got to promise not to tell anyone though." She said as she watched me. I laughed.

"As if anyone would believe me." I looked at her. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

"Alright, who's the patient?" I heard from the direction of the window.

"Holy Christ!" I said as I jumped in surprise, then immediately regretted it as pain lanced through my side, causing me grunt angrily at myself.

"I guess he is." The purple masked turtle said as he looked between us. I could only assume his name was Donatello.


	4. Trust Issues

**The fourth installment of the New Hero series. Once again I apologize for any deviations in canon, since I'm only going off what I saw in the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I do not own the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.**

I winced as I rose into a sitting position. "I'm guessing your name is Donatello?" I asked the purple masked turtle.

"Yep, that's me. What's yours?" He asked as he kneeled next to the sofa and lifted my shirt up to reveal my side, which had already formed a nasty purple bruise.

"Michael." I replied, little tingles of pain running up my side as he lifted my shirt.

"Ouch. That looks like it hurt." Donatello commented as he touched the bruise with a finger.

"Mmmhmm… Tell me something I don't know. How bad is it?" I asked as the turtle flipped down a pair of what looked like scoped lenses and paused for a moment.

"You'll be fine. It's just some bruised ribs." He said finally as he got back to his feet. "Just give them a couple of days to heal up and you'll be fine."

"Good." I said as I slowly pushed my shirt back down.

"How's the champ doing?" A new, but familiar voice said from the window.

I looked over to see the turtle with the orange mask, leaning against the windowsill.

I raised an eyebrow. "I'll be fine. Thanks. And your name is?"

"Michelangelo bro, brothers call me Mike." He said as he walked over to the sofa and sat down besides me.

"Like the Renaissance painter?" I asked as I glanced over at April, who had been quiet for sometime.

She nodded as Michelangelo glanced between the two of us. "Guess April's been educating you on us."

"Hey, Mike. We should get back. Sensei wanted to speak to us." Donatello said as he moved to the window.

"Oh alright. I was just spending some quality time with the family." He said as he patted my shoulder then got to his feet. "See ya later April. " He said to her, giving her a wink as he and Donatello went out the window.

Once they were gone, I looked at April. "Wow. How many are there again?"

"Four." She said as she watched me closely. "Are you sure you're alright? I mean, this has to be a lot to take in."

I sighed as I looked at the window. "I mean. Yeah. I don't know. I admit it's all really kind of… out of this world. But I guess I'm alright." I grimaced as I laid myself length-wise on the sofa, using the arm as a headrest. "I'm sure it'll hit me pretty hard in a day or two." I said as I grinned at her, then glanced at the clock.

"Oh man… it's late…" I groaned as a wave of tiredness swept over me. "You mind if I sleep on your couch tonight? I don't see myself making it home tonight."

"Of course. I was going to suggest you stay here tonight." April said as she got to her feet. "Hold on, let me grab you a blanket."

I sighed as I sat up on the couch, then got to my feet. A dim morning light illuminated the room, but the sun hadn't quite risen yet. I looked around at her living room, then picked up a pen and paper and wrote, _"Thanks for letting me stay the night. Call me if you want to meet up later. –Michael"_, then placed the notepad on the kitchen counter and grabbed my shoes and jacket before heading out the front door, closing it behind me quietly.

I pulled my jacket on as I stepped out into the brisk morning air. It was going to be a walk to my apartment. That was for sure. But I wasn't going to bother with hailing a taxi. The walk would give me time to think.

Four turtles. Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael. I'd met all four of them back at the warehouse. But they still didn't know who I was yet. They didn't seem too dangerous, not towards me anyways, but I still had a feeling that I wanted to be sure of that.

They had to have a place where they went after each night. I needed to find it and see who exactly they were.

I sighed as I crossed a street, glancing both ways to check for traffic. It made me feel like a criminal, sneaking around like that.

It took me ten more minutes to reach my apartment.

I pulled off my jacket as the door closed behind me and tossed it towards the closet as I pulled my shirt off and walked into the bathroom. I stopped as I looked at my side, where there should have been a bruise. There wasn't even an indication that I had been kicked there.

I poked at it carefully. Nothing. It was completely healed.

"Fast healing? Damn, I'm full of surprises." I said as I turned around and flipped the shower on.

A quick rinse, and I was headed down to the café to check out where exactly the next target was.

"Let's see… a theater… What the hell do they want with a theater?" I muttered as I looked at the screen. "That can't be right…"

Slowly, I leaned back in my chair and looked out the window, my mind racing. It had to be a diversion, but for what? What could be so secret they couldn't inform their troops about it?

I leaned forward and began to type again. Chances are there was something containing the information; I just needed to know where.

There, a list of IP addresses that had accessed the site, and one that had posted to it. I traced it back to the source, but was stopped. Some kind of firewall was blocking me.

"_Oh boy…"_ I thought as the firewall began to trace the hack backwards. _"That's not good…"_ I began typing quickly to erase the electronic pathway created by my computer. It was getting close. Just a few more seconds and… there. I sighed in relief as the program halted in it's tracks, with no path to follow. But I was left with a location to pursue. Some place in the middle of Chinatown. Typical.

"Alright then. Time to break into a mainframe." I said as I closed my computer.

I leaned against the wall as I glanced at the brick building across the street. It had no windows, and no one was going in or what. But according to the hack, this was the place. I frowned. It felt wrong. No signs of security of any kind. As a matter of fact, the place looked abandoned.

I pushed myself off of the wall and crossed the street. Raising my fist, I knocked on the door. The wooden door swung inwards from my touch, the resulting breeze causing little clumps of dust to float into the air.

"Hello?" I called out as I stepped inside. No answer. It looked as though no one had been there for a while.

I walked through the building, glancing into each room. Many were empty. Some had a random chair or desk, but nothing significant. I reached the back of the building and found some wooden stairs, leading to the basement. There was a door at the bottom of the steps.

I walked down the stairs and pulled on the door handle. Locked. Wouldn't stop me though. Using telekinesis, I pulled aside the large deadbolt keeping the door shut aside, then pulled the door open.

There was a dark corridor ahead of me, with a small red light at the end.

"_This looks promising." _I thought to myself as I stepped inside and closed the door behind me.

With the door closed, I puled off my backpack and opened it, then pulled out my 'hero' outfit. I wasn't going to be entering a terrorist organizations' secret lair unless I had a way of keeping my identity. I just hoped I wouldn't have to fight my way out.

After everything was on, I put my bag back on my shoulders and walked to the light. There was a locked door underneath the light, and I quickly unlocked it just like the other, then slowly pushed it open.

Light spilled into the dark hallway and I blinked a couple times, before noticing where I was. It was a well-furnished office. I stepped through and looked back at the opening as it closed behind me. A bookcase had been moved by the door, which was set into the wall, typical secret entrance. I pushed the bookcase against the wall, and stepped back. If I hadn't just come through the entrance, I wouldn't have even known it was there.

"_Now, to find the mainframe." _I thought to myself as I walked to the actual door of the office. The doorknob turned, and I quickly got behind the door just in time as it opened and two people walked in.

"Are your men prepared for tonight?" One, a woman, asked as I took the brief moment to slip through the door, closing it softly behind me. My heart racing, I hurried down the hallway quietly as I looked around for signs leading to a server room of some kind.

Reaching a junction, I looked down each hallway. One led to some stairs that went down further, and the others led to closed doors. Turning right, I went to the first closed door and put my ear to the door. Hearing no noise from inside I opened it and stepped inside.

Another office. A computer sat on the desk, which was covered in papers. _"Whoever owns this office is messy."_ I went to the computer and turned on the monitor. Still logged in. _"And probably going to be fired… Whatever that means in a terrorist organization."_

Quickly, I accessed the database and started looking for operations and troop movements. Luckily for me, I didn't have a firewall to worry about inside of the base, so it was an easy task of finding the theater job and searching for jobs related to it.

"There we go…" I muttered as I found it. It was happening at the same time, at a chemical laboratory about a mile away from the theater job. Only a few select men had been selected for the job. Interesting.

With everything I needed, I exited the database and logged the computer out, then went to the door and cracked it open. Just before I opened the door more, the two people from before rounded the corner and headed to the stairs. Perfect. They wouldn't even know I was here.

As soon as they were out of sight, I left the room and hurried back into the first office. I pulled the bookcase away and opened the door, but paused before heading through.

If this office had a secret entrance, surely that meant someone important worked here. And that meant that there must be some good information as well.

Hearing the woman's voice rapidly approaching the door once more, I ducked through the secret entrance and closed both the door and bookcase quickly. It would have to wait for another day.

I looked down at the computer screen and bit my lip as I looked at the two locations getting hit tonight. I assumed that the Turtles would definitely be involving themselves, but I didn't know if they knew about the chemical laboratory. If they did, the hostages would be in trouble, if not, then they would be in hopefully good hands. I would have to assume that they didn't know about the lab and proceed to deal with it myself.

After that though, I would need to head over to the theater and follow the Turtles, who were ninja's, without them knowing I was following. That was going to be the difficult part.

Closing my laptop, I stood up and left the café, then headed back up to my apartment. I was going to go to the lab early, maybe finish off the terrorists quick so I could get to the theater in time.

I grabbed my backpack with my disguise in it from my apartment, dropping my laptop off while I was there, then headed into town. The sky was dark by the time I reached the lab.

It was a tall nondescript building. It practically screamed government, and there was no way anyone was going to enter from the front. There were at least three guards just inside the doors. I walked around the block and found an alleyway running along the back of the building.

A parking garage stood just on the other side of the narrow alley. I circled around to the parking garages entrance and began to make my way up each level until I reached the top. Nothing.

Seeing as now way as well be a good time, I pulled my disguise out and put it on quickly, glancing up at the building from time to time for any signs of the terrorists.

Just as I finished, movement caught my eye. About a mile away, there were police helicopters hovering over what I could only assume was Broadway. The time was now, but where were they?

The sound of chopper blades filled my ears as I looked up to see a black helicopter landing on the building.

From air, of course they would come from air. Draw the police away and no one's looking for the lone chopper across town.

I gritted my teeth as the chopper left almost as soon as it had come. They had out thought me, almost to the level of embarrassing, but I still had another matter on my mind. I had to get to the theater, and fast, which meant I was going to need a car…

5 minutes later I pulled up to the curb a street away from the theater and got out of the stolen vehicle. I felt a little bad for stealing someone's' car, but it would be found soon enough by the police anyways.

Quickly, I headed to a fire escape and climbed to the rooftops, then began looking around for signs of the turtles. There, three roofs over. Quickly, I began running across the rooftops after the quickly moving ninjas. I pushed myself to run faster, then, just like that, they were gone.

I jumped on to the roof and looked around. _"Where the hell could they have gone?" _I thought to myself as I looked around. "Dammit…" I muttered as I walked to the edge of the building and looked down.

Just an alleyway filled with a few dumpsters, some trash, and a couple manholes. The manholes…

"Oh…" I said as I realized where they went. The sewers. Of course. A city full of people and nowhere in it to live without being seen and immediately noticed, so they went beneath it.

As fast as I could, I climbed down into the alley and lifted the manhole before climbing down into the sewer. I paused to listen for a moment; nothing… and then a far off voice. I replaced the manhole then followed it quietly.

After a couple twists and turns, I heard the voices get closer. A few more minutes, and I realized they were right around the corner, so I stopped and pressed myself against the wall as I listened. "…guys were just too easy. They're not much of a cha-"

There was a grinding noise, then the voice stopped, as if muffled by something. Deciding to risk a peek, I looked around the corner. Nothing. They were gone. "What the…" I muttered as I stepped around the corner and looked around. It was a dead end. There was nowhere they could have gone except through the wall, which I quickly realized they probably did do as I stood there.

"There has to be like a secret switch or something…" I said to myself as I stepped forward and examined the wall. No odd protrusions, no buttons, except… I paused as my fingers found a slight seam running up and down the wall_. "A secret door. That is cool."_


	5. The Sensei

**The fourth installment of the New Hero series. Once again I apologize for any deviations in canon, since I'm only going off what I saw in the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I do not own the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.**

As soon as I pushed the manhole into place, I looked around to see where I was. Upon identifying a pizza place across the street called 'Richards Pizza Parlor', I glanced around, quickly pulled off my disguise, and then began to walk down the dark street.

I was going to need to take the subway back, considering I was a decent ways across town, but at least I knew now where the turtles hideout was.

But it still felt wrong. I had been in the same room with them. One had even checked to make sure if I was okay. April even trusted me enough to introduce me to them. The situation had been a bit complicated… but still. I glanced at my phone and sighed. One missed call from April. I would have to call her back sometime. Spotting a stairway to the subway, I hurried over and made my way down to the trains.

* * *

><p>Seven o'clock and I was crouched next to an open manhole with my disguise on, listening.<p>

After I had gotten home last night, I had gone straight to bed. Then, upon waking up, I had gone immediately down to the café to check up on the time of the next terrorist attack. It was scheduled for seven o'clock.

Which left at me at my current location. I knew I could trust the turtles to jump on this job like any other, which meant I would have a little time to check out their base, and learn a little about them.

Suddenly, I heard a grinding sound and the sound of voices through the manhole. The voices were moving quickly as the quickly faded from my hearing as the turtles headed through the sewers.

"_Better now than never." _I thought to myself as I climbed through the open manhole and closed it behind me, then made my way to the wall once more.

"Let's see…" I muttered as I looked at the faint outline of the door. "Let's try… pushing…"

First I gave a light push with my hands. Nothing.

"_Harder."_

I leaned my full weight against it and gave it a shove. There was a grinding noise as the wall slowly swung inwards revealing a much darker tunnel that ended with a hole set into the floor.

I pushed the door closed, then moved forward to hole. It was a large dimly lit circular room. Seeing and hearing no movement, I jumped down into the room.

I landed in a couch, the noise echoing only for a brief moment before dying out. Straightening up I looked around at the room. The outer circle of the room was raised above the center, which was lit up.

Spotting another room on the other side of the circle, I hopped off the ledge and walked through the center to the other room. It was filled with computers and a bunch of other electronics.

I glanced up at the screens as I stepped into the room. Some functioned as cameras, focusing on what looked like all of the other entrances, the others, as T.V's.

"Huh…" I muttered as I spotted a tape player. _"I haven't seen one of these in a while…" _I thought to myself as I pressed the eject button and pulled a tape out.

"Mix tape number one… Let's see what you are…" I muttered as I put the tape back in and pressed play.

"Alright guys. You ready?" A voice, unmistakeably Michelangelo's, whispered. Then, "Three… two… one…"

I shook my head as they started to beat-box. I could only assume that it was the four turtles.

After listening for a few moments I pressed the stop button, just time to here something stop moving somewhere behind me. Quickly, I turned and used a quick wave of telekinesis to turn off the lights and the monitors, leaving me in the dark. Then, as I quietly as I could, I moved to the doorway of the larger circular room, and looked around in the darkness, my ears straining for any sound other than the soft drip of water.

My only warning was a slight tingle in the back of my neck. Time slowed to a crawl as I pushed off of the ground with my legs and twisted in the air, the object just missing me as I flew into the middle of the circular room and landed in crouch, my eyes searching the darkness for my enemy.

"Why have you come here?", a voice asked from the shadows.

"Who are you…?" I growled, deciding to mask my voice at the last minute.

"You would come into our home and ask who we are?" The voice asked. "That is true irony human."

_"Human." _The word reverberated in my head as I rose from the crouch. "You're not human…"

Sensing a sudden movement behind me, I twisted and raised my hands, using telekinesis to stop the object that I knew was flying at my head. It was a giant tail. A giant rat tail.

"No, and it seems you are not fully human yourself." I gasped as I was kicked in the stomach, causing me to stumble backwards and hit the outer edge of the room.

In front of me, a large, human sized rat stepped forward into the light. "And as for my name, I am Master Splinter."

"Sensei…" I breathed as I remembered the night I had met Michelangelo and Donatello. They had mentioned a sensei.

"Now…" The rat said as it watched me. "Will you answer my question, or will I be forced to beat it out of you?"

I looked at the rat for moment, then spoke. "I need to know if I can trust the Turtles. That's why I came here. To find out more about them."

The rat looked at me for a moment, as if considering my words. "Why do you need to know if you can trust them? How can we trust you?"

I sighed as I began to pace. "I only recently obtained these abilities. And as soon as I got them I decided I could use them for good. I assume the turtles told you about when they saw me at the warehouse?" I asked as I looked at Splinter.

He nodded.

"That was my first night using my abilities. When I saw them, and heard them speak, I knew immediately that I wasn't alone in defending the city. But I still don't know what their intentions are. Which is why I came here."

Master Splinter was silent for a while as I watched him. Finally, he spoke. "If you wish to know about us, then follow me." With that, he turned and walked into the monitor room, then continued through another doorway.

I followed as we entered a hallway, passing by a dining room and a bedroom before finally passing through a doorway into another, albeit smaller, circular room.

"Sit, please, and I will tell you our story." Master Splinter said as he took a seat on the floor. I followed suit and sat down cross-legged across from him.

The rat watched my eyes for a moment, then began. "It started a long time ago. Two scientists were working on developing a substance called mutagen. This mutagen was meant to be a cure for all ailments that might afflict the human race. But one of the scientists, Eric Sacks, intended to use it for evil. He had formed a plan in secret with his master, Shredder, to inflict biological warfare against the human race and use the mutagen as leverage to obtain money and power. His partner, upon discovering this plan, took it on himself to destroy the lab and the mutagen, so Eric would never get his hands on it."

Master Splinter put his claws together as he paused for a moment, then continued. "Sacks' partner perished in the fire, but the five animal test subjects escaped. We went in to the sewer, where the mutagen began to affect us in an incredible way. As time passed, our intelligence grew, and so did we in stature. But I had to care for the turtles, for they were young, so I raised them as my own and taught them the ways of the ninja, in hopes that they would be able to defend themselves, and possibly this city."

He stopped talking, and we sat in silence for a while, him watching me as I stared at the ground between us, just thinking.

"Yesterday, a chemical was stolen from a government lab by select members of the Foot clan." I started, shifting my body slightly. "Taking hostages at the theater was just a distraction for the police force, and possibly for you all as well."

I heard the faint sound of stone grinding on stone from the entrance of the underground base.

"They're planning something. Something important. It's the only reason they would keep it such a secret."

Splinter nodded as the sounds of voices came from the hallway.

"It may have something to do with the recent capture of their commander, Shredder, by your government."

"Do you know where he is being held?" I asked, the voices in the hallway going abruptly quiet at the sound of my voice.

"I do not..." The rat looked at the doorway, then held out his clawed hand towards the door. "...but perhaps it is time for you to be properly introduced to my sons."

A familiar orange masked turtle stuck his head through door and jerked his thumb at me. "So... who's the new guy?"


	6. Infiltration

Michelangelo stepped into the room and as the others filed in, Master Splinter and I got too our feet and faced them.

"These are my sons. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello." He said, gesturing to each one as he said their name. The four of them were watching me closely, as if attempting to look through my disguise.

"And who is he?" The red masked turtle, Raphael, said, distrust in his voice.

My mind raced as I realized that I didn't have a name to provide them with. Picking the first name that came to mind, I answered. "You may call me Shadow."

"_Shadow, great. Ultimate cliché time now."_ I thought to myself as Splinter glanced at me, then began to speak to the four.

"As you have probably realized by now, Shadow is the one you met at the warehouse. He came here in order to find out if he could trust us, for he seeks to aid this city as well." He looked at each turtles face, before continuing.

"Shadow recently witnessed the acquisition of unknown chemicals from a government laboratory. Normally this would not be too much of a cause for concern, except for the extraordinary lengths the Foot Clan went to in order to make sure we did not find out about their mission. We've come to the conclusion that this most certainly has something to do with Shredders' capture."

The turtles glanced at each other at Shredders' name. "What can we do then, Sensei?" The blue masked turtle, Leonardo, asked.

"For now? Nothing." Splinter replied. "We can only wait for the Foot Clan to make their move. Then we must attack swiftly and strike hard."

"…we may not need to wait for them to make the first move." I spoke. All five of them looked at me, waiting for me to speak. I looked at each of them, then began. "The Foot Clan has a headquarters beneath Chinatown. It was there that I found out about the mission to retrieve the chemicals." I paused, and Donatello took my moment of silence to speak up.

"We could sneak in, hack into their database, and discover every one of their plans for the next year."

I nodded. "Exactly, and more specifically, where Shredder is and when they are planning on freeing him."

"Hold on. How exactly are you planning on getting _us, _four large turtles, into a terrorist facility without being noticed?" Raphael asked, crossing his arms.

I shook my head. "We're not, I'm going alone. You four would just increase our chances of getting caught.

"And what if you _are_ caught? What'll you do then?"

I crossed my arms as I looked the turtle in the eyes. "I won't get caught. And if they do notice my presence, I'll escape. I'm not defenseless."

* * *

><p>Only a little bit later, I was making my way down the hallway towards the hidden entrance once more. Despite my assurance that I would do just fine, Master Splinter had still insisted that I wear a tracker in case I was found. That way, if I was captured, I would be able to send out a distress signal and the turtles would come running.<p>

"_I'll have to make sure they didn't put a more permanent tracker on me." _I thought to myself as I unlocked the door, then shoved it open.

I blinked for a moment in the light before realizing that the room was not empty. A woman sat at the desk right in front of me, and on the other side of the desk stood five armed terrorists, all of which seemed very surprised to see me.

Taking advantage of their surprise, I threw my arms out to the side, causing their guns to fly out of their hands and slide across the ground, then I took two steps and jumped across the table, using my momentum to kick the first soldier in the stomach and throw him into the man on his right. Quickly I dodged a punch from a soldier to the left and kicked his kneecap, bringing a scream from him as his leg broke before grabbing him by the throat and throwing him at the far left soldier. Hearing the click of a gun behind, I turned quickly, grabbed the stapler on the desk, then hurled it at the man's head before he could aim the gun at me.

He toppled to the ground instantly as both men who had been hit by their comrades got to their feet and ran at me. I ducked as they both threw a punch at me, causing them to hit each other's fists. "Nice…" I muttered as they both doubled over in pain. I quickly delivered a fast punch to each of their heads, then turned to face the woman.

Time slowed once more as I realized there was a foot flying at my head. Instead of dodging the attack, I grabbed the leg and threw the woman at the wall.

She cried out in pain as she hit the wall, but quickly got back to her feet and charged me.

"_Wow…" _I thought to myself as I swiftly blocked her flurry of attacks. "_She is so much better at fighting then her soldiers. That must be embarrassing for them." _

I sidestepped as she tried to punch me and chopped her windpipe, causing her to gasp for breath, then punched her in the forehead. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, then she dropped to the ground, out cold.

"Now, time to find Shredder." I said as I stepped through the door into the empty hallway beyond and closed the door behind me. As an extra precaution, I used telekinesis to jam the lock so no one could get in.

Using the absence of people in the hallway to my advantage, I quickly ran to the room in which I had hacked the database before.

"Alright, let's see if he's learned how to sign out yet." I said to myself as I turned the computer monitor on. Still signed in. I mentally facepalmed as I logged on to the database and began to search it for any missions relating to Shredder.

"If anyone ever hires this guy, I will personally send them a letter and tell them that this guy will be the most likely person to accidentally release company secrets to rival companies." I muttered as I scrolled through the list of upcoming jobs. Nothing. There wasn't even a mission about breaking people out of a facility anywhere. The mission must be kept such a secret that the organization didn't even trust it's own database to keep it safe.

_"Where would a terrorist group keep it's most secret plans…" _I wondered as I pulled up a map of the facility on the computer.

As the map loaded, I realized that the hideout was a whole lot bigger than I originally thought. Below the floor I was on, was a large area called the hangars. It was on this level that there were passages leading up to the surface. Below this, there were 5 more levels of offices before it turned in to a large storage facility.

"I can't possibly search this whole place. There has to be something easier…"

I flinched as an alarm began to blare through the facility. "That was incredibly fast…" I said, surprised, as I went to the door and looked out.

It was the same woman, now with a large purple bruise on her forehead. "We cannot delay any longer." She said to the soldiers standing with her, the fury in her eyes hot enough to start a fire. She seemed pretty pissed about being beat up.

"It's time to initiate the plan. Gather everyone. This ends now." With that, she turned and walked down the stairs, the men right behind her. As soon as the last soldier's head disappeared down the steps, I slipped out of the room and went to the junction of the hallways.

I looked at the office where the woman had come from, then at the stairs. Instinct told me to leave out the secret entrance, but something told me that the plan the woman was speaking about involved Shredder. And I would need to follow them.

Making a quick decision, I turned and went down the stairs. I descended two flights of steps before it opened up onto a small balcony overlooking a huge warehouse like area filled with a ton of different cars ranging from military trucks to semi's and even jeeps.

I turned as I spotted the woman walking towards a raised section of the large area.

"All combat personnel please report to Hangar One." A voice said over a loudspeaker system. Almost immediately, an large amount of soldiers began to walk towards the same raised area.

Realizing this was the perfect opportunity to sneak down to the ground level of the stairs without anyone looking, I quickly ran down the stairs and hid behind a truck. Spotting a lone soldier, I waited for him to turn away from my direction, then stepped out from behind the truck and ran up silently behind him.

I took a quick glance to make sure there was no one around to see, then slammed my fist into the back of his head. He crumpled without a sound, and I grabbed him before he hit the ground and carried him to a nearby storage closet.

After stripping him of his uniform and putting it over mine, I tied his hands and feet and gagged him, before stepping out of the closet with his assault rifle in hand and locked it behind me.

Quickly, I jogged towards the other side of the hangar where I could hear the woman speaking.

"… and we will free Shredder from his captors, and he will restore us to our true glory!" I heard as I stepped up behind two of the other men and watched the woman from the office give her speech.

_"She seems just a little crazy." _I thought as I watched her, but surprisingly, the men seemed to be really into it. _"So… crazy following crazy then. Sounds great."_

"For the Foot Clan!" She shouted, and the men followed suit like parrots.

"FOR THE FOOT CLAN!" They all yelled, raising their guns to the ceiling as the cheer filling the space with noise. As the noise died down, the soldiers began to separate as they began heading to vehicles.

Spotting the woman through the crowd, I made my way through the mass of bodies and followed her to a military truck. If I was going to find Shredder, I had a feeling I wanted to be with the one in command.

And now, I was a member of the Foot Clan.


	7. The Attack

**The seventh installment of the New Hero series. Once again I apologize for any deviations in canon, since I'm only going off what I saw in the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I do not own the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.**

"This truck is for high level personnel only, get in one of the others." The man ordered as he stopped me from climbing into the truck after the woman.

"Oh… sorry." I said quickly as I stepped away from the truck and went to the next closest one. After climbing in in the covered back, I ended up between two other members of the clan, each of whom glanced at me, and then looked away out the window.

I made sure to keep my eyes down towards the floor of the jeep. I didn't want people to start talking to me, but just in case, I started putting together a tiny backstory.

The truck engine started up, then we began moving. I felt the car tilt slightly, as if going up a ramp, then bounce slightly as turned. _"I'll take a wild guess and say that we're on a road."_ I thought to myself.

A quick glance out of a gap in the canvas confirmed it. It didn't look like we were in Chinatown either. Another thirty minutes of twists and turns and I felt the truck speed up. Taking another quick glance outside, I realized we were on the freeway. We were leaving the city.

"So… when did you join?" The man across from me asked. I glanced at the other guys for a moment, then back at him.

"What me?" I asked back. "I'm a new recruit. I only just joined really. You?"

He smiled beneath his mask. "Been six months for me. Why'd you join?"

I sighed as I looked down at my boots. "I don't know. I just kinda hated life out there. Wanted to do something, even if it wasn't particularly legal." I lied.

"Huh…" The man chuckled. "Surprisingly enough, I haven't heard that one before."

"Glad I'm unique in some way."

"Who was your recruiter?" He asked as he leaned against the side of the truck and put his rifle across his lap.

I paused for a moment as I pretended to try and remember. In reality, I didn't even know how one was supposed to join the Foot Clan. I sighed as I shook my head. "I think it was something like John or something, I can't remember. I was pretty nervous at the time. All seems like a blur now."

The man sat up and leaned towards me. "And where is your tattoo?" I paused. _"Tattoo? What tattoo?" _I thought as I glanced at the others, who were all looking at me. "What tattoo?" I asked as I looked back at the man.

"This one." He said as he rolled down his right hand sleeve and revealed a Chinese symbol on his inner forearm.

"Well, there goes that." I said, then grabbed the arm of the man to my right and twisted it, before ducking and letting the man to my left punch him in the face. I then jerked my head to the left and broke his nose before slamming my elbow into the guy on my rights' face, knocking him out. One guy out of the way, I pulled the guy on my left into a stranglehold before I fully realized what had occurred in front of me.

The two men on either side of the guy were unconscious, and the guy in the middle was grinning at me. "So, why did you break into the Foot Clan?" He asked as the man in the stranglehold fought to get free, his movements steadily getting weaker.

"I needed to find out where the job was taking place tonight." I replied as I finally released the now unconscious man. "Who are you?"

"Richard Braxton. CIA." He said as he glanced out of a gap in the canvas. "We're pulling off of the freeway."

I glanced outside. I didn't recognize where we were, but I hoped the turtles were still tracking me. I didn't think I could take on the whole of the Foot Clan by myself.

"I know where we're are going." Richard finally said as he looked away from the gap in the canvas.

"Where?" I asked as I looked at him.

"It's a government facility. Heavily fortified. I don't know how they are planning on getting in with out a huge fight."

"They stole something from a government lab yesterday. That'll probably help them." I said as we started traveling uphill.

Richard frowned. "That can't be go-" He was cut off as a massive explosion ripped through the night somewhere ahead of us. "What the hell was that?" He said as we both looked out our own respectful peepholes. A rapidly dissipating fireball rose from the now visible government facility.

"I think we know now." I replied as the truck neared the facility, bringing the effect of the explosion into view. The front gate of the facility was a massive crater, with the gate itself nowhere to be seen. Then the sounds of gunfire began.

The truck stopped and I went to the back entrance. Looking out I could see men running past our truck and firing into the base.

I made a move to climb out of the truck, but Richard grabbed my arm and stopped me.

"Where are you going? It's not safe out there!" He as he glanced out at the men. I reached over and pulled his hand off of my arm.

"We both have our own missions. Go handle yours. I'll be fine." I said as I eased myself out of the truck and looked around.

"Wait!" I turned and looked at the man. "What's your name?" He asked.

"Shadow." I replied, then jogged off to join the other members of the Foot Clan.

I took cover behind the engine of a truck as gunfire ricocheted off of the armor. Unable to leave cover for the moment, I used what time I had to get my bearings. There were three entrances to the area we were in, which was about two hundred square feet of open space, now filled with cars.

The gang members were advancing quickly as the bullets hitting my car stopped. I took the brief moment of respite to glance around the car. There she was. The woman and a small group of men were pushing ahead of the main group into the facility. I couldn't let them get away.

I brought my rifle up just in case, then stood up and ran after the woman. The gang members were pushing forward, but the military was still putting up a fight.

"No kill shot's..." I muttered to myself as I brought my rifle up and aimed it at a soldier who was turning towards me. Two shots, and the man fell backwards with two bullets in his right shoulder. "Sorry..." I whispered as I turned to my next target.

I fought as a member of the Foot Clan into the facility, but tried to save as many soldiers as possible in the process. It was ironic in a very morbid way. I had to hurt the soldiers in order to protect them.

As we moved into the main lobby of the facility, the number of soldiers severely lessened, and we were able to fight them off with ease.

With the majority of the defenses gone, the woman stepped up in front of the soldiers once more.

"They will be sending more men soon. Make sure they stop here and proceed no further. Defend this place with your lives." And with that, she turned and began to jog off with her own personal squad in tow.

_"Wow, she doesn't actually expect them to die for the clan... does she?" _I thought as I glanced around at the men. Yup, she did, and they totally looked ready to as well. But I couldn't stay there. Not with the woman getting ready to free Shredder, who was apparently quite a tough guy.

As the Foot Clan members turned to face the front doors in preparation for the sure to be incoming assault, I moved to the back of the group and slowly edged my way backwards until I was behind everyone. Then, with everyones attention facing the doors, I turned and ran quietly in the direction that the woman and her men had gone.

As I drew closer to them, I slowed my pace and quietened my footsteps, making sure to pause at every corner until they had rounded the next. But even then I was almost spotted once or twice when one of the men turned quickly and looked back to see if anyone was sneaking up on them.

Eventually, they reached an elevator, and I watched them file in, before the doors closed behind them. Walking up to the elevator, I looked around for any stairs, nothing. "That's a breach in the fire code... and this is even a government facility... tax dollars at work..." I muttered as I grabbed the crease in the doors and pulled them open.

With my increased strength, they slid open easily. Leaning forward I peered down the shaft, it was pretty far down, and the elevator was still going. "Okay then... nothing to it... just got to climb down the cable..." I frowned as I realized I was lacking in a suitable protection for my hands as my gloves would probably wear out pretty fast.

"Time I took this off anyways..." I said to myself as I began to pull off my terrorist disguise. As soon as the uniform was off, I pulled my hat and bandana out of my jacket, which I had kept on under the uniform, and put them back on. I was back in my proper outfit. Awesome.

Slinging the gun over my shoulder, I took the Foot Clan uniform and wrapped it around my gloved hands, then stopped as I glanced down the elevator shaft. _"Jeez that's a long drop..." _I thought to myself as I pulled my head out of the shaft.

"Okay... three... two... one... Go!" I took two steps forward, then jumped, my hands grabbing on to the wire tightly as I stopped there for a moment and closed my eyes. I took a couple deep breaths, then began to slowly slide down the cable.

I must have traveled around thirty floors before I finally reached the elevator, but when I eventually did, I let go of the cable and dropped on to the roof silently. I took a moment to listen for any noise, like voices, then pulled open the trapdoor on the elevators ceiling and dropped down in to the elevator.

There was a slight thump as I hit the floor of the elevator, and I stopped for a minute to see if I had been detected, then I pressed the open doors button on the elevator and they slid open quietly. I sighed as I looked into the hallway ahead of me. Thank heavens there hadn't been an obnoxious dinging noise. A gun at my side, I stepped forward into the underground hallway and began my search for the woman, and Shredder.


	8. Shredder

**The eighth installment of the New Hero series. Once again I apologize for any deviations in canon, since I'm only going off what I saw in the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I do not own the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.**

I tried the first door I came to, locked. Assuming these people were in a hurry, they probably didn't lock the door, so I moved on and tried the next door, locked as well.

Suddenly, the sound of an explosion reverberated off of the walls from further down the hallway. _"Bingo."_ I thought as I began to jog down the hallway. It hadn't seemed that far away, but the walls must have amplified the sound because I found myself jogging down the hallway which twisted and turned for two minutes at least before I arrived at a large door with a hole blown through it.

I slowed down to an uneasy walk as I stepped through the hole. Inside, was a square room with slanted windows, looking out over a sizable chamber. Stepping down a couple of steps into the room, I walked over to the window and peered down into the room.

The woman and her men stood in the room in front of what looked like a large suit of samurai armor. I frowned as I watched her mouth move. _"What the heck are they doing… It's like… oh…." _

I took a small step back from the window as the armor moved forward, stepping off the platform it had been on and flex its' limbs, as if remembering an old outfit. Then it looked straight up at me.

My breath caught in my throat as its' eyes locked with mine. _"Shredder…",_ was the only thought that ran through my mind. Gunfire shattered my reverie and the windows as I fell backwards to the floor and covered my face. The gunfire stopped and I looked at the ground around me. Glass shards covered the floor.

An idea flashed into my mind as an unfamiliar voice began to speak. "You may wear a mask, but that does not make you special. Many people who call themselves 'hero's' have known defeat by my hand. Give up now, and I may grant you a quick death."

Avoiding the fallen glass, I slowly got to my feet and looked down into the chamber. "Offering someone death as the only choice isn't exactly the best of strategies." I said in my disguise voice as I raised my hands and the glass followed, each individual shard slowly twisting in the air as they hovered around me. "Especially someone like me."

I threw my hands forward, and the glass shards hurtled towards Shredder and the members of the Foot Clan. The members cried out in pain as the glass sliced through them, but the glass merely shattered on Shredders' armor.

_"Five down, one to go…" _I thought to myself as I looked at the incapacitated members. I paused. One was missing. _"Where…" _Time once again slowed as I heard the air move behind me. Twisting around, I grabbed the woman's arm and stopped her fist an inch away from my face.

_"That was close…"_ I thought, before releasing her arm and stepping away to avoid a kick to my stomach. Grabbing her leg, I twisted and threw her towards the broken window, but was stopped when she latched onto my shoulders with impressive flexibility and attempted to head-butt me. Quickly, I jerked my head sideways and threw her over me then followed with a quick twist and kick to her stomach. She cried out as she hit the ground.

Slowly, she climbed to her feet and faced me again, but instead of moving in again, she waited. I stood there watching her as well, wondering what she was waiting for.

A small flicker from her eyes was all I needed, and I turned to see Shredder standing on the other side of me. God I was stupid. I should have taken her out before he had gotten a chance to get up here.

"Interesting, you have skill." I glanced at the woman to make sure she wasn't making a move on me while he talked. "Perhaps you would like to put your skills to actual use and join the Foot Clan. We could use someone like you… Someone with… abilities."

I shook my head as I looked back at Shredder. "I work for the good of the people, not to further my own agenda. I would never join you."

"…and is that your final answer?" He asked, venom in his voice.

"Yes." I said defiantly, which of course was very brave of me and all, but kind of stupid as well.

"…then die." Shredder snapped his arms and two jagged daggers appeared on each arm. With incredible speed, he charged at me and slashed at my body. Time slowed once more and I jumped backwards to avoid the blades. That didn't stop him as he continued to slash at me. I couldn't afford to back up to much since we were running out of room fast, so as soon as he slashed to the left, I jumped forward and pulled myself over Shredder's shoulder.

I hit the ground in a roll and turned around immediately, only to find myself on the defensive once more. _"Damn he's fast..."_ I thought as I ducked to avoid another slash. I needed a weapon… my gun! I immediately realized that I didn't have it on me, and I sidestepped towards the blown up door as I glanced around for it.

There next to the shattered window. The woman, who was still in her corner, spotted my glanced and immediately went for the gun. "Oh no you don't…" I growled as I ran forward. Time nearly stopped as Shredder's blades arced towards me. One from the front, and one from the back.

Throwing myself into the air, I pulled my body into a streamline as the blade in front of me narrowly missed me by an inch. I curved my body into a roll as I neared the ground, the second blade skating just over my head.

Time accelerated as I rolled to my feet and slammed my shoulder into the woman at full speed, the resulting momentum causing us to hurtle through the broken window into empty space.

Pulling the gun from her grip, I turned and fired back through the window at the armored man. The bullets produced sparks as I emptied the clip at him. Click… Slam! I gasped as I hit the ground twenty feet below at roughly thirty five feet per second, knocking the air out of my lungs and causing me to see stars for a moment.

When my vision cleared, I realized that Shredder stood in front of me. "You fought well, but I'm afraid that ends here." He said as he pointed a new weapon at me, it was a row of knives, each of which looked lethally sharp.

Four things happened at once in the next moment, just as each individual knife was launched at me, I threw my arms in front of me and stopped them in their tracks, but my burst of telekinetic energy did much more than that. I heard a familiar voice as Shredder was picked up by my power and thrown at the opposite wall with incredible force, his knives right behind him.

The moment passed, and I blinked as four familiar green turtles appeared in the outline of the window above. "Shadow!" Leonardo said as he jumped out of the window and landed with a loud thud, the other turtles right behind him.

"Man… you totally wrecked Shredder…" Michelangelo said as looked back at the armored man, who was lying in a crumpled heap against the opposite wall.

I sat up, and immediately grabbed my head as a massive headache ripped through my head. Throwing a shipping container was one thing, but reversing the velocity of ten knives and throwing an armored giant was another thing.

"You okay?" Leonardo asked as he grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet.

"Yeah…" I growled as I rubbed my head.. "Just a little much for me…"

"Donnie, get over here and check out Shadow will you?" Leonardo said as he watched me, concerned.

"There's no time for that!" I said as I waved Donatello away.

"He's still moving…" Raphael growled from behind the turtles. Quickly, the turtles turned and spread out as they face Shredder.

He was back on his feet, and he looked like he hadn't even been affected by the impact. "We meet again… You may have had your tricks last time, turtles, but I will not fall for them this time."

The ninja turtles glanced at each other as Leonardo spoke quietly. "Remember, if we use team work we can beat him, just like last time. Ready?" He glanced at his brothers. "Three, two, one… Go!"

Yelling, all four brothers ran charged forward and attacked the metal giant from all four sides. At first, it looked like Shredder had drastically underestimated the four, as they were all landing hits on him, but that immediately changed when Shredder caught hold of Donatello's staff and picked him, then threw him at Leonardo, causing them to tumble across the ground in a confused heap. Then, with incredible speed, he slammed into Michelangelo, and threw him to the floor before facing Raphael.

Raphael hesitated for a moment, and then yelled as he jumped at Shredder.

"Raphael, don't!" I yelled as I ran forward. Shredder immediately dodged the turtles attack and slammed him into the wall before, before turning and throwing his knives at me again.

Time stopped. I knew I couldn't stop them, I had already used too much of my power. I would need to jump. Time began to move once more as I threw myself into the air and twisted. The knives were moving closer and I was just reaching the height at where I would be able to avoid them, but I was too slow.

As the knives began to slice past me, I felt the jagged edge of one of the knives carve a path across my side, it's razor sharp blade cutting through leather, cloth, and flesh, like butter.

Time accelerated and I hit the ground on my uninjured side. I cried out in pain as blood began to ooze out of the wound. Faintly, I heard a thrumming noise from behind me, then the knives went flying back through the air, each blade slicing through the air, as they returned to their owner.

My heart raced as I put my hand over the wound and put pressure on it, the maroon liquid quickly coating my hand. Releasing my side, I pulled my jacket off and wrapped in around my abdomen as I sat up. It would slow the bleeding, but it wouldn't stop it.

My eyes immediately went to where Shredder had been as soon as I finished tying the makeshift tourniquet, gone. _"He must be running…"_ I needed to catch him, and finish this, before he escaped and hurt more people.

Breathing heavily from the pain in my side, I got to my feet and looked around at the turtles. Shredder must have done something to them when I was down, because they weren't getting up.

A glint caught my eye, and I immediately focused on it. One of Leonardo's swords lay on the ground. Perhaps that was the edge I needed. A punch wouldn't get through Shredder's armor, but perhaps a blade could.

Wincing as my side burned with pain, I walked over and picked the sword up. It was light, but felt strong.

_"Shredder… I'm coming for you…" _I thought to myself as I gripped the sword tightly and headed for the stairs.


	9. Showdown

**The ninth and final installment of the New Hero series. Once again I apologize for any deviations in canon, since I'm only going off what I saw in the 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I do not own the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.**

I leaned heavily against the elevator as the doors closed, then the elevator began moving with a soft whirring sound. Every time I moved, the wound in my side sent shocks of pain up my side. It wouldn't make it any easier to fight Shredder. I could only hope that he didn't walk away from the fight completely unscathed.

The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. I took a couple deep breaths, then gripped the sword in my right hand and walked through the opening. I forced myself to push against the pain as my side continued to throb. If I was going to catch him, I would need to hurry. I could only hope the military would delay him for an amount of time.

As I walked the distant sounds of gunfire reached my ears. It seemed that they were doing at least something. The fighting steadily grew louder, until I finally reached the lobby.

It looked completely different for the time I had originally been there. Smoke filled the room, lit up occasionally by gunfire. I would be lucky not to get shot going through there.

_"Oh well… here goes…" _I took a moment to brace myself against the incoming pain, then sprinted forward through the smoke and through the front door. The pain in my side seemed to disappear momentarily as gunfire echoed in my ears. I was running on pure adrenaline as I shot like the many bullets around me through the front door and into the snowy landscape.

The fighting continued into the courtyard as I ducked behind a wall that wasn't completely blown to pieces then got a scope of the situation.

The courtyard was filled with chaos. The terrorists and military were spread through out the area at random, each with their own firefight. Many of the trucks were destroyed or otherwise immovable, but a couple near the front gate were still intact. It was there I spotted him.

The glint of his armor caught my eye as he climbed into an open back truck, which began to drive off almost instantly.

"You're not getting away this easy…" I muttered as I got up and scrambled across the courtyard, using the trucks as cover. By the time I got to a usable truck, Shredder was gone.

As fast as I could with my injury, I climbed into the truck and started it up, then slammed my foot down on the gas. The back wheels fishtailed for a moment before catching some traction, causing the truck to jerk forward and trundle through the gate as it began building momentum.

As the sounds of fighting began to disappear behind me, I spotted the red lights of Shredders truck ahead of me. They were a ways ahead, but I was catching up. The only thing that worried me was the cliff on the left side of the road. It was about 30 feet to the side, but one wrong jerk of the wheel, or a small bump, and I would go flying off of it.

Ahead of me, I saw a blur of motion. Quickly, I jerked my head to the side as a knife sliced through the windshield and imbedded itself in the seat cushion directly to my left, before detaching itself and flying right back through the window to Shredder, who was standing in the back of the truck and staring directly at me.

I was getting closer, but not close enough as he threw a knife at the truck again. This one embedded itself in the hood of the car and I blinked for a moment, before he began throwing more at the hood.

"_He's trying to take out the engine…" _I realized as he brought back the first salvo and chucked them at the engine again. Slamming my foot on the accelerator, the truck jumped forward and slammed into the back of the truck.

The truck swerved as the combined momentum caused it to lose control on the snowy road, then flew into the air as the wheels hit a sizable bump in the road.

I couldn't help but grin as the truck swerved towards the left then began to roll, but that rapidly disappeared the moment my truck decided to follow the other one.

"_Oh shit!" _I yelled mentally as I threw open the door to my truck, grabbed the sword, then jumped. I landed in a snow bank, which saved me from some severe pain, but not all of it.

As I hit the ground, the truck continued on and proceeded to ram the other, sending both off of the cliff, and into the icy dark waters below.

Covered in snow, I gritted my teeth and picked myself off of the ground as I looked at where the trucks had disappeared. Nothing. There was just some ripped car parts where the rolling truck had been, but other than that, I couldn't see anything.

I sighed as I looked at the ground. Maybe it was over. Maybe he was actually gone. I turned away… then stopped as the sound of metal on rock met my ears. _"It's never easy, is it…" _

I turned back to face the cliff edge, and there, rising to his full height, stood Shredder. As if in an attempt to dramatize the situation, the moon chose that exact moment to come out from behind the clouds and bathe the area in a pale light, the white rays reflecting off of Shredder like light off of a sword.

No words were spoken as I brought the sword up in front of me. His gaze traveled over me, as if assessing my physical state, before he stepped forward closer to me and began to turn slightly in a circular motion. I did the same, Leonardo's sword glistening in the pale light.

Our tracks had formed a large circle in the snowy clearing when we finally stopped, the moon to our side. The pain in my side seemed almost non-existent now as we stood there, then he finally spoke.

"You may think that merely because you have a weapon now, you will win. But you will not. I have years upon years of training. You, you have speed and luck." He glanced at my side. "And even that has begun to desert you. You will die here, on this cliff. And no one will even know of you."

I shivered slightly as the cold wind picked up the snow particles and threw them into the air, then immediately jumped sideways as Shredder lunged at me with his razor sharp blades. I brought the sword up quickly as he twisted and slashed at me, the two blades producing a high-pitched *ting* as the metal glanced off metal.

I took a step back as he slashed at me again, this time with his other blade, barely missing me as it flew past my chest. Quickly, I jabbed with my own sword at his arm. The blade skated across his armor as he turned into the blade and slashed down ward at me with both of his blades at the same time.

Time slowed as I pulled the sword back and met the powerful blow with all my strength. Catching the first blade, I pushed it back towards the other, and then pushed them upwards.

Stepping forward, Shredder pushed back against the blade, and then threw all of his weight forward, throwing me into the air. I yelped as I twisted through the air and hit the ground on both feet, the traction in the ground causing me to slide a couple feet through the snow before coming to a stop.

He gave me no time to recover as he charged forward and began slashing at me with increasing speed. Having no time to dodge again, time slowed as I began to block every attack as fast as possible. Ducking under a slash, I stepped forward and brought the sword down on his left arm as hard as I could. As I hit, I noticed his other blade arcing towards my head, so I continued the motion down into a roll as the blade sliced past my head with inches to spare.

A quick roll and a spin and I was facing him again. I blocked an attack from his right arm, then ducked as his left arm sliced at me again. The attack hadn't done anything.

I had no time to ponder as he began to assault me with a flurry of blows, pushing me backwards towards the cliff edge. I took a quick glance behind me and saw the cliff edge quickly approaching, then began to fight back with renewed intensity so I wouldn't get thrown off.

That's when it came to me. I couldn't beat him in a physical fight. His armor was too strong. So the cliff was my answer. Maybe it could do what I couldn't. And if Shredder's armor was heavy enough, it would pull him to the bottom and become his own tomb.

Slowly, the fight began to move backwards towards the cliff. Not that I could push him back any more anyways. He had been right. He had years of experience over me. And he was strong. No matter how hard I tried, he always managed to push me back steadily towards the precipice.

Finally, I felt my heel move back and meet the rocky cliff edge. Throwing my weight forward, I brought my sword forward and blocked a double-bladed attack from Shredder, locking us together, our faces inches apart.

My muscles strained as I pushed against his weight so I wouldn't fall backwards.

"This is where it ends… Goodbye… Shadow…" He growled as he began to push harder against me.

I gritted my teeth as I resisted his push. "But you forgot one thing… I'm not an ordinary human…" I grunted.

Time slowed as I used what little telekinesis I had yet to push him backwards just far enough to let me jump upward and do a flip over him. Landing on both feet, I twisted and shoved forward with a yell to throw him off of the cliff and into the dark chasm below us.

Everything froze. I felt confused as I looked up at him. Then I realized that his arm was raised. My eyes slowly dropped as I followed the arm down to the blade then the blades edge up to my body, where it disappeared into my right chest.

"Everything dies. You wouldn't be the first, or the last." He growled as he watched me take it in.

His words seemed a million miles away as I blinked slowly, then realized I was probably going to die here. Up on this snowy cliff, with no one around to see me.

I blinked again.

A new thought entered my mind as I looked up at Shredder. If he escaped, he would go on to kill more. Even if I was sure to die, I would make damn sure he would go with me. This one thought in my mind, I raised my left hand.

"You're going with me."

With those words, I summoned up every last ounce of power that I could from inside me, then focused it all on Shredder. Time slowed down for me as he tried to move away, but it was too late for him. I heard nothing as he was abruptly thrown backwards off of the cliff edge, the blood soaked blade leaving my chest in one fluid motion.

He disappeared from site quickly as he hit the inky black water far below, his weight creating a tremendous splash as he hit the water, then nothing. He was gone.

I stared down at the water for a moment, then felt my world tilt. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground, staring up at the twinkling stars. The snow felt warm beneath me as I breathed raggedly, having only one lung that was functional.

As the world began to fade, I saw a shadow appear over me. I couldn't begin to comprehend it as my vision faded away, until only darkness remained.

**The End**


End file.
